working on a new build with the following software:
OpenLDAP-2.2.15
db-4.2.52 w/ patches
(other components are included but do not relate to the current issue:
cyrus-sasl-2.1.19, heimdal-0.6, openssl-0.9.7d)

build on the following hardware:
OS= Redhat 7.3
processor=2.8ghz
memory=1gig

Writes work, as long as its only a few ... but if I try to add 100 user
accounts using ldapadd -f file.ldif .. it bombs out fairly quickly, with
no obvious errors(loglevel -1). The technical term "bombs" is defined
as, slapd stops responding, but is still running.

I need to run a db_recover on the db before slapd will come up
properly.

what other information would I need to provide so that I or someone
else can help me diagnose this problem.

Make sure you've built slapd with debug symbols enabled (compile with
"-g") and the binary is not stripped. Run the command sequence that
causes the hang, attach to slapd using gdb, and get a trace of all the
running threads during the hang:
gdb> thread apply all bt

It sounds like you've hit a deadlock, but that's rather surprising as
we've subjected this code to some pretty intensive write loads already
without trouble. The trace should reveal what's happened.